Surprised Kubica thankful to BMW

The 21-year-old Pole, BMW Sauber's third driver, replaced Canadian Jacques Villeneuve from the Hungarian Grand Prix and immediately made an impression, finishing in seventh place.

He was later disqualified after his car was found to be underweight.

But Poland's first Grand Prix driver made up for that with a superb drive at today's Italian Grand Prix, where he finished in third place behind Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen.

"I am really surprised to finish third," admitted Kubica. "We knew we had good tyres for the race and not just qualifying as it happened in Istanbul. We were concerned in qualifying but when we saw we were okay and could get to Q3 we knew we had a good car for the race.

"I had a good start and unfortunately I locked wheels at first corners, so I had a flat spot and had vibrations on the first stop.

"I thank the team for giving me such a good opportunity."

Teammate Nick Heidfeld finished in eighth place after being hit by driver-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

Today's result allowed BMW to move ahead of Toyota in the constructors' championship, three points ahead of the Japanese squad.